Christian Horner, following his tradition of watching the race start from the garage, watched as Fatih, followed by Max behind him, left their grid positions for the formation lap.
Although he had full confidence in their car's pace being the fastest, AlphaTauri had gone for the middle ground, giving them better speed on the straight compared to the Red Bull, which went with a chunkier rear wing to dominate the castle section and protect their rear tires. So, if Max didn't overtake him into turn one, overtaking might be slightly difficult and take a few laps, laps where he would be losing ground to Hamilton, who might create an undercut-proof gap.
